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For a lot of people, a 4:05 start on a Saturday night is unheard of in these parts.

The Penguins started this game, their home opener of the 2015-16 campaign, three hours before the usual scheduled start time of 7:05.

In the first 5:06 of the game, the Penguins were down 3-0 before they knew what hit them, and things looked really bleak.

But the game of hockey is sixty minutes, not five minutes. They settled, and overcame the Lehigh Valley Phantoms by a score of 6-4 tonight, going 4-for-7 on the power play.

Matt Murray opposed Lehigh Valley’s backup Jason LaBarbera, after the Phantoms bussed in overnight from Springfield last night.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Conor Sheary
Dominik Simon – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – J-S Dea – Matia Marcantuoni;

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Olesky
Reid McNeill – David Warsofsky
Niclas Andersen – Will O’Neill

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Harrison Ruopp took the warmup but was scratched.

First Period: Quick start by the Phantoms: Petr Straka banged home a rebound after Chris Conner got a step on a guy to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead at 1:11; Jay Rosehill picked a pocket of a Penguin in the defensive zone after Wilkes-Barre had become careless with their exit passes and scored at 3:31; and Tim Brent scored a power play goal after he connected with a stretch pass, and made a move to give the Phantoms a 3-0 lead at 5:06.

Phantoms weren’t done. More relentless pressure forced the Penguins into an icing.

Then, a turning point.

Matt Murray made a money save on Jesper Pettersson to set up a rush the other way which washed out as a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton power play. Will O’Neill stepped into one from the far hash to give the Penguins life on the ensuing power play to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Penguins started to roll and create chances. They played 15 minutes of great hockey predicated by 5 minutes of awful hockey that cost them three goals.

Second Period: Penguins had carryover power play time from the first. Tom Kostopoulos scored on a rebound of a Scott Wilson power move to the net to bring the Penguins to within a goal.

About 4 minutes later, Niclas Andersen stepped into one from the blue line to tie the game at three a piece.

The Penguins kept coming. The Phantoms kept putting themselves down taking penalty after penalty. Will O’Neill stepped into one from the right dot for a one timer, power play goal for a 4-3 Penguins lead.

Later, the Pens made it a two goal lead when Dominik Simon ripped a shot over the glove of LaBarbera on the power play to make it 5-3. It was Simon’s first goal on North American soil.

This week, Coach Mike Sullivan focused on special teams. It worked. Three power plays in the period to bring the Penguins back from dead and looking good heading into the…

Third Period: The Penguins got too cute with their exit passes again in the defensive zone and played loose and Nick Cousins made them pay to being Lehigh Valley back within one with 18:15 left to play in the game.

But the Penguins never allowed the equalizer thanks in part to the play in goal by Matt Murray. Murray was stellar with shot after shot heading his way. Taking away the first five minutes of the game tonight, Murray was a star of the game.

But you never know. The Penguins could have used another goal to give them a cushion and to crush the spirits of the Phantoms once and for all. Who are you going to call? The captain, tom Kostopoulos, that’s who. He took a pass off the short wall from Oskar Sundqvist, floated in the slot and ripped one past LaBarbera for insurance, and a 6-4 Penguins lead that held for good.

Three Stars: 3) Will O’Neill (two goals, -1) 2) Dominik Simon (goal, three assists, +1) and 1) Tom Kostopoulos (two goals, assist, -2)

Around the Division: Bridgeport still has yet to lose. They lead the division and the conference remaining undefeated after beating Providence 3-1…Hartford shutout Utica 3-0…Portland tripped up Hershey 3-2. The Springfield Falcons were the only team in the Atlantic Division off tonight.

Standings: The AHL is doing this with percentages this year, so points don’t matter at all, but in the Eastern Conference where all the teams play the same amount of games, I am just going to base these off of points. Here they are: Bridgeport 10 — Penguins 4  — Hartford 4 — Portland 2 — Hershey 2 — Providence 4 (again, the AHL is using percentages and not points, Hershey is a .500 team with 2 points divided by 4 available) and Springfield – 0.

Conference look is moot because they aren’t doing top eight this year. I will figure out a way to let the reader know if the Pens are a playoff team. Way too early for that.

Let’s take a look at the postgame infographic, since I asked for it and the Penguins delivered…

[tweet https://twitter.com/WBSPenguins/status/655541501980733440]

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Wheeling Update: The Nailers lost their first game of the season in Norfolk by a score of 4-2. Anton Zlobin was injured on a hit by Gabriel Verpaelst and did not return. Jarrett Burton had the two goals. The Nailers were down 3-0 and got it to 3-2 late, but with Brian Foster pulled, they gave up an empty netter. Foster stopped 20 of 23 shots.

If the Pens put up a YouTube package, I’ll embed it here. If not, the Gameday setup for tomorrow’s tilt up in Bridgeport will hit the blog at 1 p.m. for the 5 p.m. start.

Let’s Go Pens!!

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I always go back to the last game that the Penguins played in an AHL city to bring the graphics over for my post game recaps. The last time the Pens were in Bridgeport was a 7-0 thrashing by Wilkes-Barre back on March 1 of this year. A game that they could do nothing wrong, made the game look easy, locked down the Sound Tigers and Matt Murray picked up another one of his billion shutouts he had last season.

Not tonight.

Wilkes-Barre got blasted tonight by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tonight 4-1. The game really wasn’t within reach by the Pens from the start and the Penguins played from behind all game. Bridgeport Sound Tigers goaltender Christopher Gibson looked spectacular, stopping 26 of 27 shots faced, but if you went back and looked at the game on an AHL Live archive or were at the game in person you would have saw that a good majority of the shots he saved were from the perimeter.

Gibson opposed Matt Murray, making his second start in as many days.

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Conor Sheary
Dominik Simon – J-S Dea – Bryan Rust
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Matia Marcantuoni – Josh Archibald

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Reid McNeill – David Warsofsky
Niclas Andersen – Will O’Neill

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Lineup Notes: Harrison Ruopp took warmups but was scratched. Carter Rowney was out for Matia Marcantuoni on the fourth line. Other scratches were Barry Goers and the injury scratch was Tyler Biggs.

First Period: Strong start by both teams with the slight edge in play to the Penguins. The Penguins fourth line of Sestito, Marcantuoni and Archibald seemed to be generating all the chances. Then, with the Penguins on a power play, David Warsofsky couldn’t corral a puck at the blue line, it got past him, and Bracken Kearns broke in unabated and put the Sound Tigers on the board with a shorthanded goal…

[tweet https://twitter.com/TheAHL/status/652991470547402752]

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The Penguins had a second power play that they looked better on, but the chances were all one and done.

Shots were 11-10 Bridgeport after one. To this point, the Penguins allowed opponents a sum total of 52 shots in one and a third games (Providence had 41 on Friday) so I asked the question on Twitter when the last time you saw a Penguins team give up so many shots in so few games. I may have to go back and look some time this week and see how many cumulative shots the Penguins allowed opponents in a three-in-three weekend last year. It is just highly uncommon.

Second Period: Goals 1:01 apart in this period. First, Will O’Neill on a power play for the Penguins that put Wilkes-Barre on the board…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/653000502033170432]

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But soon after, Mike Halmo dropped a pass to Alan Quine who found Jesse Graham all in transition that put the Sound Tigers back ahead 2-1.

Christopher Gibson was becoming the story for his team in net for the Sound Tigers, making calm save after calm save, seemingly seeing and stopping everything. A save on a Josh Archibald deflection through bodies and traffic, a calm stop during sustained pressure by Wilkes-Barre. Penguins had a late power play but couldn’t score on it and Dominik Simon and J-S Dea couldn’t connect on a two-on-one.

Third Period: Penguins were continuing to press with stars like Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust trying to do too much to no avail. A summary of the period and a precursor to the fact that the Pens were not going to get back in the game came about halfway through when Penguins captain Tom Kostopoulos received a cross ice pass and waited out the Bridgeport goaltender Gibson but Gibson didn’t move and made the save anyway.

Time started to become the enemy of the Penguins. Finally Joe Whitney was gift wrapped this goal from this awful turnover by Bryan Rust…

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/653018873948676097]

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For good measure the Sound Tigers would score on an empty net with Taylor Beck doing the honors.

Three Stars: 3) Jesse Graham (goal, +3) 2) Christopher Gibson 26 saves on 27 shots and 1) Bracken Kearns (goal, assist, +3)

Bryan Rust and David Warsofsky were -3 each. Just a bad night overall. Pens have a week now to work on things and tighten things up.

Around the Division: Syracuse spoils Lehigh Valley’s home opener by a score of 4-3…St. John’s does the same with Hartford 3-1 and Hershey’s explosive offense wasted no time in spoiling Springfield’s home opener by a score of 5-1. Some guy by the name of Chris Bourque scored his 500th career AHL point in the game. Portland and Providence were off.

The Pirates still have yet to play a game, so the standings look is moot for now. The Pens will be .500. Better than Hartford, Springfield and Lehigh Valley.

Conference look is gong to be moot this year also because playoffs are division based. There is a crossover effect, but we can get into that as the season wears on.

I don’t think they are doing SendToNews highlights this year because I went to look and all I found were Western Hockey League highlights. So I guess you are out of luck if you want to see them.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were off tonight, they open their regular season Friday in Hampton Roads against the Norfolk Admirals.

I’ll update my charts for the blog Sunday and throw a link up here then. I’ll also tweet out a weekly auto-tweet Tuesday as in years past this year.

Pens will probably bus back either tonight or Sunday with a week of practice to prepare for Lehigh Valley before turning around to come back to Bridgeport next Sunday.

My Week 1 AHL Power Rankings will hit the blog Monday at 4, like in years past, so look for that as the next blog post here then.

Let’s Go Pens!

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A total of 81 shots combined between these newly formed divisional rivals turned into a defensive battle and a goaltending war.

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins win this one 2-1 in overtime thanks to two goals by Scott Wilson and 40 saves by Matt Murray, who was only 1:49 away from yet another shutout but it wasn’t to be.

[tweet https://twitter.com/nafsnep/status/652622017590599684]

That was the view for me all night. Someone forgot to hook up a wire or turn on a camera. I pay a pretty penny for the league wide package. People tell me I am crazy. I think that they may be right…

Lines were…

Scott Wilson – Kael Mouillierat – Conor Sheary
Dominik Simon – J-S Dea – Bryan Rust
Dominik Uher – Oskar Sundqvist – Tom Kostopoulos
Tom Sestito – Carter Rowney – Josh Archibald

Derrick Pouliot – Steve Oleksy
Reid McNeill – David Warsofsky
Niclas Andersen – Will O’Neill

Matt Murray – Tristan Jarry

Scratches were defensemen Harrison Ruopp and Barry Goers and forwards Matia Marcantuoni and Tyler Biggs. Biggs is recovering from a minor injury. Will O’Neill and Steve Oleksy wore the “A’s” for the Penguins tonight.

First Period: The Penguins were outshot 17-9 in the first period of their 2015-16 campaign, mainly because they took all of the penalties in the period. Three total. Matt Murray was sharp. When called upon, opposing goaltender Zane McIntyre was sharp as well. There was a fight, Steve Oleksy and Anthony Camara:

[tweet https://twitter.com/AHLBruins/status/652629652339597312]

Murray had a save on a two on one with P-Bruins sniper Alex Khokhlachev barring down.

Second Period: Pens stopped taking penalties and started to control the pace a bit. Finally, Scott Wilson scored on a turnaround shot on a shot from the slot. Conor Sheary had the lone assist. Penguins started to generate pressure coming from all lines, but Zane McIntyre was college hockey’s top goaltender last season and kept his team in it. Despite me not being able to watch the game tonight because of the NeuLion difficulties, I still listened to Mike O’Brien and he was calling a lot of chances for the Penguins that were just smothered by McIntyre.

Teams traded power plays late but neither scored. Shots through two were 30-21 in favor for the Bruins.

Third Period: Penguins penalty killing along with the solid goaltending won them the game tonight. The Penguins took two additional penalties in this period but the special teams and Matt Murray kept the P-Bruins off of the board.

But the Bruins continued to press. Seemed like every other word out of Obie’s mouth on radio was, “Khokhlachev” as the Bruins sniper was being double or triple shifted. Finally, on setup by Khokhlachev, Frank Vatrano threw a shot at Murray’s net from the side wall from a bad angle that tied the game with 1:49 left. The game would need to be decided via…

Overtime: Scott Wilson’s group of he and Oskar Sundqvist with Will O’Neill was the second group to go over the wall in the 3-on-3 overtime and Wilson didn’t waste much time scoring 1:18 into the overtime period to secure the full two points for the Penguins.

Three Stars: 3) Zane McIntyre (38 saves on 40 shots) 2) Matt Murray (40 saves on 41 shots) and 1) Scott Wilson (two goals, +2, 6 shots)

Around the Division: Portland, Springfield, Bridgeport Hartford, Hershey and Lehigh Valley all start their 2015-16 campaigns Saturday.

I am not going to put the Standings or Conference standings up until everyone plays a game, so if you want this, check back tomorrow when everyone in the Atlantic plays a game.

Wheeling Update: The Nailers are in preseason and lost to the Cincinnati Cylcones 4-2 tonight in West Virginia. The Nailers open on the road in Norfolk next Friday.

SendToNews Highlights: See above, first picture.

Pens bus to Bridgeport for a 7 p.m. game against the divisional rival Sound Tigers. Gameday for this will hit the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!!